Some surprising truths about weight... Fat isn't what's killing you: Dieting is.
A medical establishment that equates "thin" with "healthy" is the problem. The solution? Stop the dieting madness.
I strongly recommend anyone why is dieting and trying to fit their body into our narrow accepted standards, to read Linda Bacon's book Health at Every Size - what does the statistics really show on health and weight. Our striving for the perfect body is vanity - not a health matter.
Think about it this way. Just because a study shows that bald men have a higher occurrence of heart attacks doesn't mean that it's the lack of hair on the head that's the risk factor - it's the low testosterone! So let's say we tried to fix this issue by giving them a hair transplant - that wouldn't really help one inch on the abnormally low testosterone now would it. And THAT approach is exactly how we are addressing the weight issue. We are telling people to just lose the weight and all things will be fine. Unfortunately, losing weight is no indicator of health or healthy ways. What is CAUSING the weight issues - THAT is what we need to address, because thinner people do not live longer. In fact, research shows that those we categorize as overweight live the longest, while those in the obese category live just as long as those in the normal weight category.
Does it make you happy? That's what we need to ask ourselves - happy people live longer.
A medical establishment that equates "thin" with "healthy" is the problem. The solution? Stop the dieting madness.
I strongly recommend anyone why is dieting and trying to fit their body into our narrow accepted standards, to read Linda Bacon's book Health at Every Size - what does the statistics really show on health and weight. Our striving for the perfect body is vanity - not a health matter.
Think about it this way. Just because a study shows that bald men have a higher occurrence of heart attacks doesn't mean that it's the lack of hair on the head that's the risk factor - it's the low testosterone! So let's say we tried to fix this issue by giving them a hair transplant - that wouldn't really help one inch on the abnormally low testosterone now would it. And THAT approach is exactly how we are addressing the weight issue. We are telling people to just lose the weight and all things will be fine. Unfortunately, losing weight is no indicator of health or healthy ways. What is CAUSING the weight issues - THAT is what we need to address, because thinner people do not live longer. In fact, research shows that those we categorize as overweight live the longest, while those in the obese category live just as long as those in the normal weight category.
Does it make you happy? That's what we need to ask ourselves - happy people live longer.
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